Port to move forward with $6.2 billion in airport projects

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plans to move forward next week with two major, long-delayed projects to replace terminal buildings at airports in both states.

The agency’s board will vote to authorize a $3.93 billion project to make LaGuardia Airport more palatable to travelers by replacing the often-mocked Central Terminal Building and constructing a grand entry hall — a component that was added to the project after Gov. Andrew Cuomo intervened and called for a more ambitious plan.

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And, in what appears to be a traditional tit-for-tat deal between the states, New Jersey also is poised to get an airport improvement project: A long-discussed replacement for the aging Terminal A building, with an estimated price tag of $2.3 billion. While in the works for some time — and partially funded in the agency’s capital plan — the project had not been a major topic of discussion recently.

The Port began early planning work for the Newark project in 2004 and had already authorized some initial construction. Terminal A opened in 1973 and has fallen into disrepair. The new project calls for the building to be demolished and replaced.

“It no longer meets the standards of a modern airport, is at the end of its useful life and is in need of significant investment to maintain state of good repair,” the resolution says.

The redevelopment plan recommends construction a 1-million-square-foot building with 33 aircraft gates, as well a 3,000-space parking garage with connections to the terminal and AirTrain. It would include a new arrival and departure roadway network, plus a new airfield configuration.

The board would also be authorizing the expenditure of $196 million to “implement certain elements of the Redevelopment Program.”

In Queens, the LaGuardia project, which will be mostly financed by airport user fees and private investment, will remake the Central Terminal Building — the facility Vice President Joe Biden famously likened to a "third-world" facility. It will move that building, along with Delta’s terminals, closer to the Grand Central Parkway, allowing for extra taxiway space.

The project, a priority of Cuomo’s, will also unite the terminals in a $361 million architectural flourish of a Central Hall.

“The Central Hall will be designed to unify the Airport,” reads the resolution, and it “may accommodate” an automated people mover, a hotel, and an AirTrain station connecting LaGuardia to the subway system.

Last January, Cuomo vowed to build an AirTrain to Willets Point, where it would connect with the 7 train and the Long Island Rail Road. Little headway has been announced since, presumably because the AirTrain still has to go through an environmental review process and significant planning work, which is believed to be underway.

“LaGuardia is un-New York,” Cuomo said in July. “This is a new phrase ... LaGuardia is slow, it’s dated, it is a terrible front-door entranceway to New York.”

Some advocates were pleased the agency is about to sign off.

"It’s an important step,” said Stephen Sigmund, executive director of the Global Gateway Alliance, an airport advocacy group. "You can’t actually do the project without the board of commissioners authorizing and allocating the money for the project.”